Bill named his custom Further firstly for the beautiful woods.
Secondly, it's a bit of a tribute to Woody Guthrie. As Bill explains, "Woody
Guthrie, back in the 1940's wrote 'This Machine Kills Fascists' on his
guitars. Inspired by Woody, Pete Seeger writes 'This Machine Surrounds Hate
And Forces It To Surrender' on his banjo head. I've always thought it was
cool and evocative of the power and unifying nature of music. I wanted to
make it my own and soften it a little, make it a little less confrontational,
so I decided on 'This Machine Surrounds Hate And Sings It Into Submission'"

The Quilted Maple top on Woody is stunning. Bob selectively tinted the
finish so that only the Quilted Maple has a slight amber tint to the finish. It takes many extra steps, but the end result is worth it.
For each coat of finish, the tinted area needs to be masked for the clear parts. When dry, the clear parts are masked so we can
spray the tinted parts. We repeat this process until all the color is applied and we're ready for just clear top coats. Bill
reports, "The Quilted Maple top looks three dimensional. People see it, touch it, and are surprised to find it is smooth."

Usually the veneers on the peghead match the laminates on the body. That's true for Woody,
only the positions are flipped. The Quilted Maple veneer is on the back and the Coco Bolo veneer on the front. This is a little nod to the
old Alembic guitars where the front peghead veneer rarely matches the body wood. The back of the peghead has an abalone inlay to commemorate California
Proposition 215, which Bill co-authored.As a decorative feature, Bill asked us to
bevel the edges of both the front and the back of the peghead.

Bill selected the Coco Bolo from stacks and stacks
of lumber at the factory. "The Coco Bolo on the back has an amazing swirly pattern with numerous 'eyes'." Bill goes on, "I went through
the wood supply at the factory and picked the boards out that eventually became the top and back. Watching the transformation from hunks of dead tree to high art has been fascinating." To preserve that swirly pattern, we made the backplates in the continuous wood style.
Each plate (there's one for the LED batteries too), is cut from the
back laminate before we glue up the body. Then each plate is resawn to produce two to three veneers. We build the plate from these
decorative veneers and add other woods like Maple or Purpleheart to build the stack of custom plywood. These wooden plates go through
the finish process the same way and at the same time as the rest of the guitar.
While we were building Woody, another guitar, Owl was also under construction, which is
practically Woody's inverse.

This was a last minute add-on, but you'd never know unless we told you! We found
some swirly Coco Bolo scraps in the shop and overlaid them on our pickups. After getting a high-gloss polyester finish to match the rest of the
guitar, they look as right as rain.
In addition to looking great, it's all about the tone, "I wanted the middle pickup to have a thinner sound," Bill told us. "I use the middle pickup
on my Strat for country-tinged material. I wanted to get that same effect from Woody, so I requested a slight deviation from the normal recipe." The Further
guitar usually has a humbucker shaped pickup in the middle position, but we used a thinner single-coil shaped pickup there instead.

Roger at THG Knobs made these sweet little Coco Bolo hat knobs for Bill's guitar
to keep the "Woody" theme alive and well. A small golden mother of pearl dot indicates position.

The inlaid logo is sterling silver with abalone and golden mother of pearl. The
golden mother of pearl coordinates with the amber tint on the Quilted Maple top and the rest of the inlay work.

A decidedly California-centric view of the world executed in golden mother of pearl and
abalone graces the first fret.

Bill's got a day job, and the "Scales of Justice" are in honor
of his profession. They are inlaid in golden mother of pearl with 18 karat gold.

A nameplate at the 24th fret is inlaid in golden mother of pearl. We cut the
letters out with a jeweler's saw, and fill the openings with a mixture of Ebony dust and epoxy. This is not engraved, the letters go all the way through
and will survive refretting.

This peace inlay is done in three colors of mother of pearl: white,
golden, and black Tahitian. The inscription reads, "This machine surrounds hate and sings it into submission," and is engraved in the font
Solpera. "This guitar was my 50th birthday present to myself. For the last 20 years
I've been kiddingly promising myself either a '60's Jaguar XKE or a custom Alembic as my present to myself. As I approached the big
Five-0, Senior Management was far more amenable to the Alembic. As expensive as a custom Alembic may be, it is still far less
than an E-type Jag! Wolf was always my favorite Jerry guitar. I'd been playing a Strat for the better part of 30 years, so a Further was the
obvious choice."And, of course, another unexpected benefit has been getting to know the
wonderful folks at Alembic, as well as making many new friends all over the world through the
Alembic Club Forum. I've already started dropping hints to Senior Management about appropriate celebration of my 60th down the road."It's been an honor to build this guitar for you, Bill. Not only do you
have impeccable taste, but we've enjoyed getting to know you and call you friend. Looking forward to your Friday drop-bys for many
years to come.